


Amalgam of Truth and Error

by TheBabadook



Category: Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Canon Rewrite, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Episode: s05e09 Lies of Omission, Gen, cause I hate the miscommunication trope
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-20
Updated: 2021-02-20
Packaged: 2021-03-16 02:33:31
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,584
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29568957
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheBabadook/pseuds/TheBabadook
Summary: A different take on The Rain Scene in S05E09.
Relationships: Scott McCall & Stiles Stilinski
Comments: 3
Kudos: 14





	Amalgam of Truth and Error

It was raining heavily by the time Stiles arrived at the animal clinic and Scott, who had been waiting for him, was already drenched (it was a good thing that werewolves didn't get sick easily).

Stiles stepped out of the Jeep, saying something about how Roscoe had broken down again but Scott wasn't really listening, gripping the blood-splattered wrench tightly.

It didn't take long for Stiles to spot the tool and he paled visibly. „Where did you get that?“

Scott shook his head slightly. That didn't matter. There was only one thing that mattered. „Did you kill him? Did you kill Donavan?“

Stiles licked his lips and his heartbeat increased. „He was gonna kill my Dad“, he croaked, trying to justify what he knew couldn't be justified. Not in Scott McCall's pack. But it wasn't like he had planned for it to happen and the way his friend was looking at him made it almost seem as if-

„Do you think I had a choice?“

„There's always a choice“, Scott shot back, stuck in disbelief that Stiles didn’t show the slightest bit of remorse.

„Well, I can't do what you can, Scott!“ Stiles felt a familiar sense of annoyance run through him. „I know you wouldn't have done it. You probably would have figured something out, right?!“

„I'd try.“

That quiet admission turned Stiles’ irritation into anger. „Yeah, 'cause you're Scott McCall! The true Alpha! Guess what, not all of us can be true Alphas! Some of us have to make mistakes- some of us have to get our hands a little bloody sometimes!“ A frustrated scream made its way out of his throat. „SOME OF US ARE HUMAN!“

Scott felt slightly sick when the smell of Stiles' stress and anxiety became increasingly evident, even with the rain that still fell down onto them. He wanted nothing more than to embrace his distraught brother, hurting almost physically with the need to comfort him. But he held himself back, the echo of what Theo had told him hardening his resolve. „The way that it happened-“

A desperate kind of confusion flashed over Stiles' features. „What are you even talking about? I didn't have a choice, Scott!“

„Stiles, we can't kill people that we're trying to save! Do you believe that?“

The pale teen's shoulders slumped and the scent of sorrow thickened. „But I didn‘t have a choice“, he repeated hoarsely, his voice wavering. „H-he threatened to eat my legs- Scotty, I didn't-“

„Wait, what-?“ Scott felt like someone had pulled the rug out from under his feet. „Eat your legs?! Wha- what are you talking about?“ That didn‘t make any sense. „When you got the better of him, you should have-“

Stiles scoffed in disbelief. „When I got the better of him?!“, he couldn‘t hold back the slightly hysterical laugh that escaped him.

„Oh- please enlighten me, Scott- when do you suggest was that? Huh?! When he snuck up behind me and rammed his fucking teeth into my shoulder? Or maybe when he threw me into the book shelf? Or when I was climbing the scaffolding and he grabbed my leg-“, Stiles broke off with a shaky inhale, the growing panic in his chest increasingly harder to ignore- It almost felt like a noose was tightening around his neck.

He pushed it all down though, he needed to come clean, needed to at least try to explain himself. „I didn’t mean to-, I just wanted him off me! I didn't plan for that beam to pierce straight through his fucking chest, alright?!“

In that instance Scott remembered how he had heard Theo's heartbeat jump while telling his story and it suddenly made sense. “I thought he was upset, but he wasn't. He was lying”, he mumbled, as the pieces of the puzzle started to fit into place. But why would Theo come up with a lie like that? And more importantly, what else did he lie about?

Scott didn't have time to dwell on that as his friend's pulse had taken up worrisome speed. Stiles, who had taken Scott's silence as a dismissal, was fumbling with the door of his jeep, the shaking in his hands making it hard to grab the handle properly. Scott immediately recognized the signs for what they were and rushed forward, ignoring his anger towards Theo for the moment.

He grabbed Stiles by the trembling shoulders and turned him around, so that he faced him. “I believe you, it's okay“, he soothed, trying to keep the tone of his voice calm and even. „It wasn't your fault. Breathe, Stiles, breathe with me, come on.”

Stiles clawed at his chest and sank to the ground. “I.. can't...!”

Scott didn't know what to do and was struggling to keep his own panic at bay. “Breathe, please Stiles, BREATHE!”, he roared, eyes momentarily flashing red.

Stiles came back to himself with a start, finally managing to regain control of his breathing.

“He lied to me”, Scott rushed to say, feeling the urgent need to explain himself. “Theo, I mean. He said that you beat Donavan to death. That you mutilated his body.”

“And you believed him?”

“I'm sorry”, Scott grimaced apologetically. “But what was I supposed to think? He gave me a bloodied wrench and you were acting all weird and hiding something- why didn’t you just tell me?”

Stiles averted his eyes and Scott noticed that he was still shivering, which was really no surprise with the rain not having slowed in the slightest- they were both drenched to the bone. “Let's continue this inside, I have some spare clothes there.”

Stiles nodded, not at all sorry to interrupt their conversation at that particular point. Once they got inside, Scott rushed off to find some towels and rummaged through the drawers, hoping he had two sets of clothing stacked there. Meanwhile Stiles hovered a bit awkwardly by the door, not wanting to flood the clinic by stomping through it as well. After just a few minutes, Scott reappeared, handing a towel, shorts and a tshirt to his friend.

“Should fit, might be a bit big though, I mean, I'm way buffer than you.”

“Ouch, right in the feels.”

Their chuckles were not entirely without strain but the familiar banter eased the mood a bit. They changed into the dry clothes when Scott noticed how Stiles substituted his pants but hesitated to pull off his shirt. With the newly discovered information he was able to quickly put two and two together.

“You said that he bit you”, he thought aloud. “I knew you lied when you blamed the hood of the jeep for your hurt shoulder but couldn't figure out why. Let me see.” He stepped forward and helped a protesting Stiles out of his shirt.

Scott hissed in sympathy when he inspected the bite. “That looks nasty. You didn't get it treated at all, did you?”

“Well, I couldn't exactly go to the hospital now, could I?”, Stiles scoffed and mimicked: “'It was a dog, honest!'”

Scott felt some of his anger resurface. “You could have come to me or your Dad, anyone!”

Stiles flinched back slightly and his gaze fell to the ground. “I couldn't”, he rasped, his voice cracking slightly. “I couldn't tell anyone.”

“Stiles, it was self defense”, Scott insisted, smelling the guilt coming from his friend in waves.

Stiles' tongue darted out, wetting his lips and he nervously fiddled with his fingers. “Do you know what the first thing was that I thought when I realized he was dead?” He didn't wait for an answer. “'Good.' I thought it was good.”

Scott opened his mouth to reply but Stiles was on a roll. It seemed like all the things he had bottled up were suddenly coming out at once. “He threatened my Dad, remember, at the station? He actually blamed him for his own father's paralysis that happened during a case. That's why he wanted to eat my legs by the way, or maybe he thought that they looked particularly tasty, not that I couldn't-”

“Stiles", Scott interrupted firmly, effectively cutting him off to get him to regain his focus.

“I wanted him dead, Scott. I hated his guts and I wanted him dead.” That admission seemed to have taken everything out of him and his shoulders slumped down.

Scott swallowed once, twice and took a moment to gather courage for what he was about to say: “When.. when the assassins came for us in that abandoned building and I was fighting one of them- I pushed him to the ground and slashed across his chest, again and again. I wanted to kill him.“ He swallowed thickly and shook his head to clear it from the memories. „Eventually I snapped out of it but if he hadn’t had that armor, he would be dead now.”

“But he's not.” As usual Stiles instantly came to his defense. “And those guys were crazy, not to mention actual assassins! He would have killed you without a second thought. You just protected yourself and your pack, that's what an Alpha does, man.”

Scott nodded. “I agree. And the same thing applies to what happened between you and Donavan.”

„Right.“ Stiles averted his eyes again, his voice losing its prior conviction. “I know. Self defense.”

His pulse betrayed him but Scott didn't call him out on it and instead filed it away for later. It would take time, he knew that. For now, they had to find Theo and stop the Dread Doctors.


End file.
